Volunteers sorted through 9,000 lbs of potatoes to make sure every sack was fresh for distribution

Ever smell a rotten potato? Yeah, not so good. All it takes is one or two of those bad boys to spoil a whole sack of starchy goodness. Well, thanks to volunteers at the Red Cross Boston Food Pantry today, clients won’t be seeing spoiled potatoes of any kind cross their plates.

The Boston Food Pantry received close to 9,000 pounds (almost five pallets!) of potatoes from the Greater Boston Food Bank. According to American Red Cross Food & Nutrition Programs Director David Andre, they set-up an outdoor project under the tent to sort out the potatoes, throwing away the bad ones into the dumpster and transferring the good ones to an assembly table which was inside the building.

“Not exactly a glamour volunteer job, but our clients would not have received their bags today without it… so those outdoor volunteers were today’s’ heroes in our food pantry,” Andre said. “I spoke to one of the ladies that was working on ‘potato duty’ and she is very eager to come back and help more.”

Many of those hard-working volunteers were from Bunker Hill Community College, Boston Cares, and a group from MIT. Many thanks for everyone’s help with what has been dubbed the “Boston Food Pantry Potato Project”!